Reset: DPS to Support?!

Chapter 96: Underestimation (1)

Speaking out in a serious tone, the attention of the group quickly fell onto Shinto.

"...my worries were true huh?" Raina nodded her head. "We're too under levelled for this dungeon."

"What made you two think that being 20 levels below the average is a good idea?!" Frey shouted out.

"Cough... we didn't have any information regarding that until after entering into the dungeon," Shinto stated. "And with the fact that this is an instance dungeon, we can't leave even if we wanted to."

"Bah. We could have killed those rats if it wasn't for the fact that there was a horde of them..." Ethaniel scoffed. "At best they seem to be around five to six levels higher than us. So, killing them in small batches shouldn't pose any problems."

"But the fact that they always come in hordes..." Kon muttered out.

"Yeah!" Frey nodded her head. "They always are in hordes! So if they're way higher levelled than us... wouldn't that mean our death?"

"Well... it is true that I've greatly underestimated this dungeon, but that wouldn't mean our death even if they come in mischief. We still technically can do this dungeon just fine," Shinto calmly said.

"...we can still do this dungeon just fine?" Kon shivered at Shinto's words.

"What do you mean by that?" Raina questioned.

"We can work our way through this place easily, If, we work as a team that is," he nodded his head.

"Huh? Weren't we working as a team already?" Frey raised her brow.

"Well in combat, we were. Though, it's not the best," he shook his head. "It's more of as if we've only been fulfilling our own roles."

"...?" Frey tilted her head in confusion.

"What I mean is, we've only been fulfilling our roles. We haven't been reliant on our party members all as much," he explained. "Although we've managed to follow up attacks and the like, that's no good."

"...so, what I'm getting at is... we have to be reliant on somebody during battle...?" Frey still couldn't understand Shinto's words.

"Relying is one thing. But the most important thing is that we need to understand the weaknesses and style of our teammates," he closed his eyes. "With that, we can get a good grasp of the flow of our party in order to coordinate better."

Although the teamwork of the party was going good, it wasn't to the level where they could blindly win against high levelled enemies through brute-forcing like the group had been doing the entire time.

With the lack of understanding of the skills from the party members, the reliance of said ally falls off, and without that 'reliance', teamwork and trust wouldn't be established.

"Understanding the weaknesses and style of our teammates, huh?" Raina pondered on the words said by Shinto. "How do we go about that?"

"Yeah! How do you?" Frey inquired.

"Well, the easiest would be to know what we do," Shinto said. "Tell me, how much do you know about the skills of Raina, Ethaniel, Kon and I?"

"Err..." she blinked at the thought. "...I know Raina throws out explosions... Ethaniel swoosh swoosh enemies, you blind the enemies or heal us... and Kon shoots out boom!"

"...swoosh, swoosh?" Ethaniel raised his brow. "Are you serious?"

"I mean... you have that sword of yours that constantly send out bright flashes," she said. "Which reminds me... you're that person from the fight in town yesterday, right?!"

"Hah?" he blinked in confusion at the statement.

"You know! The one that fought against the brawler?" she asked. "Those attacks are so flashy, it's so cool!"

"Ah... you saw that fight?" Raina questioned.

"Mhm! I really like it! Though... it was a pity that-"

"Ugh, shut it, that doesn't matter anymore," Ethaniel scoffed as he turned to Shinto. "Now, can you continue on?"

"Huh?" she tilted her head in confusion. "Did I say something wrong...?"

Shinto let out a cough. "...cough. Frey..." he helplessly shook his head. "Ignoring that, my point stands. Our teamwork isn't the best," he firmly said. "We lack the understanding of our party's skill, and thus... we can't as much rely on them as we want to."

"Hmm... so, we just need to explain how our skills work and... that's it?" Raina mumbled out.

"...basically so. You just have to generally tell us what you have in your set," Shinto said. "You don't need to explain anything too in-depth."

Although Shinto knew the basic gist of how the skills of a mage and a brawler worked, he still needed to know how Frey and Raina went about with their builds and skillset, as they were multiple choices for skills for the basic classes that determined one's playstyle.

"Right, so..." Raina quickly opened up her skill window as she soon explained. "I have three fire-based skills... one of which is an AOE. A non-elemental skill and the rest all the basic element skills, all of which single targets."

"You went with mainly fire-based skills?" Shinto asked.

"Mhm," she nodded her head. "Since I needed to deal a lot of damage before, fire was my go-to. Though, I'm planning on getting thunder and wind skills later."

For mages, there were many types of styles that a player could play in. The damage types being fire and thunder-based skills, the supportive type being wind and water and defensive type, earth.

"...hmm, right," he thought to himself. "If so, what about you Ethan?"

"Six skills. Three are single target and two are AOEs, and one is a parry," Ethaniel said.

"So you have six," Shinto mumbled to himself. "Are they all mainly damage?"

"Yes," he said. "Pure damage, with a few self-buffs here and there."

"Got it. And you Frey?" Shinto continued asking.

"I've got six as well!" Frey shouted out. "All damage, and all single targets! Actually... um... one is a self-buff...? I don't know! Haven't used it!"

"...what's the skill?" he tilted his head.

"Err... Parry Fist?" she said as she opened up the skill description quickly sharing it with the party whilst reading through the effects of the ability.

[ Parry Fist Lv 1 ] [ 150 MP ] [ Cooldown: 10 Minutes ]

Enters into a defensive stance, increasing defence by 20% for two minutes. With two hands crossed, when receiving damage, counter the enemy for 20% of the damage received whilst dealing and an additional 145% of physical damage to the enemy.

"Oh! Now I remember! I chose this skill because... well, I thought it was cool I get to counter people!" she said excitedly.

"...choosing Parry Fist over Healock or Highwind Kick...?" Ethaniel stared at Frey in disbelieve. "Why...?"

"Eh... I just thought it was cool!" she answered without a second thought.

"...sigh, you-" Ethaniel was about to continue on as he was quickly interrupted by Shinto.

"...actually, with the fact that we don't have a main tank... this is actually quite good," Shinto answered amused. "Parry Fist increases one's defence if I recall. So, Frey can be in the front taking hits while dealing quite a lot of damage."

"You do realize I have a parry skill too, right?" Ethaniel said.

"What's the effects of it?" Shinto questioned.

"..." Contemplating on whether or not to share the skill's info, Ethaniel sighed as he showed him the details of his parry skill [Judgement Counter].

[ Judgement Counter Lv 1 ] [ 30 Sword Energy ] [ Cooldown: 30 Minutes ]

Through the power of the judgement knight, enter into a defensive state for one minute and a half. During such state, a barrier that absorbs 500 damage is created whilst one's strength is increased by 20%.

When receiving damage, counter the enemy for 30% of the damage received whilst dealing an additional 135% and 115% of light physical and magic damage respectively.

*Damage is greatly increased against enemies marked as 'evil'.

"...this is?" Shinto blinked at the skill description.

"My parry skill," he shrugged.

Shinto was deep in thought as he compared the two skills. One from the brawler and the other from Ethaniel's class 'Judgement Knight'. On paper, one would obviously choose the skill [ Judgement Counter ] over [ Parry Fist ] due to the effects, however, both skills had a different sort of usage to them.

In comparison, in terms of a defensive counter, Parry Fist wins over Judgement Counter. However, the latter wins in term of raw strength.

"Hmm... well, depending on the situation, we can utilize both parry skills in different ways," he nodded his head. "Especially when considering the fact of pairing it up with my skills, the room for possibilities widen."